Judge May Close Preliminary Hearing for Accused Omaha Killer

(AP) — A judge will decide Wednesday morning whether to close a preliminary hearing for an Indiana man accused of killing four people with ties to an Omaha medical school.

The preliminary hearing for Anthony Garcia is set for 9 a.m. Wednesday. Before that, a judge will decide whether to close the hearing to the public. Garcia’s attorneys argue that news coverage of the preliminary hearing would hurt Garcia’s right to a fair trial.

Garcia is being held without bond on four counts of first-degree murder. Police say he killed the 11-year-old son of Creighton pathologist William Hunter and the family’s housekeeper in 2008, as well as Creighton University pathologist Roger Brumback and his wife in May.

Brumback and Hunter had fired Garcia from the Creighton pathology program in 2001.